French striker Karim Benzema proved once again why he is regarded as one of the most lethal goal scorers in the world today. The Real Madrid captain rose to the occasion and scored a sublime hat-trick against Chelsea in the Champions League quarter-final first leg at the Stamford Bridge stadium on Wednesday. The treble helped the visitors register a crucial 3-1 away win and emerge as the favorites to move ahead towards the last-four stage of the competition.
Benzema placed two inch-perfect headers into the net within a span of four minutes in the first-half itself to stamp his authority on the match. He could have had his hattrick in the dying minutes of the first-half but failed to curl the ball with his left-foot on the right-side of goalkeeper Edouard Mendy in the 42nd minute of the game and was left totally dejected.
A sparce Madrid crowd didn't have to wait much longer to witness Benzema's third goal, however, as goalkeeper Mendy's feather-touch pass, which failed to reach defender Antonio Rudiger, was pounced on by Benzema into an open goal.
Here's a look at Benzema's hat-trick:
While Vinicius Junior provided the first assist, Luka Modric was the artist who dropped in a superb lob into the six-yard box to find Benzema for his second.
Chelsea then made it 2-1, with Kai Havertz scoring a crisp header of his own from Jorginho's lofted pass.
Thomas Tuchel's side weren't as bad as the scoreline suggested. The defending champions did enjoy 58 percent ball possession, more shots as well as more corners won but failed to make the most of it as Madrid went rampant to claim a dominant victory.
In the other Champions League match on Wednesday, Villareal defeated Bayern Munich 1-0 to cause a huge upset in the first leg at the Estadio de la Ceramica stadium in Villarreal in Spain.